J. Blanton Plumbing, Sewer & Drain

Evan C.

My experience with J. Blanton Plumbing is similar to other reviewers here. I began working with them less than two years ago when I lived in an old building and we had a burst pipe. The technician was great, very professional and put in a lot of work to defrost our pipes and replace the damaged unit. In the end it cost around $1000 which I consider to be fair given his professionialism, attention to detail, and quality of work. He also reccomended the companies no drip club for free water testing and other assessmnets. This seemed to be a useful service early on.

Since then things have changed dramatically. We moved into a new house that is nicer than our old one and though it is not far from our old place the neigborhood sppears to be much nicer.

Initially, we had a few small jobs for J. Blanton and when the tech came he deployed the familiar scare tactics and outrageously high quotes. We wanted to replace two of our showerheads, tub spouts, and cartidges. Pretty routine stuff. He quoted us a total of $5000 for both. It is unbelievable to me that they had previously charged us around $1000 for a defrost and burst pipe repair that first time. We passed on the $5000 replacment and got another plumber to do it for $400. We have had no issues with it in the months since.

More recently, we decided to use our 'No Drip Club' membership to get an evaluation of the plumbing and water systems at our new home now that we are settled in. Once again, we given quotes in the thousands of dollars for small jobs, some of which did not even seem to exist until their tech showed up and started messing with our stuff. For example, all of our toilets wall connections were leaking onto the floor. As homeowners we pay close attention to these things and never once noticed a problem. And of course, the tech claimed they all have to be replaced.

Anyway, I do not find them to be a trustworthy company operating in good faith. It seems they base their pricing on their perception of their clients wealth rather than actual cost of labor and supplies. Definitly get multiple quotes and second opinions from other companies before working with J. Blanton.

IAN A.

Do not hire this company.

I have been using J,Blanton for 10 years. Over that last two years I have noticed their plumbing techs have become increasingly predatory. Today one of their crooked techs, Shane Waychoff, came to my property to fix a simple problem that I felt needed a professional. He diagnosed the problem and then proceeded to try to rob me by charging $2400 to reconnect a duct that had come loose. I told him to leave immediately. I then contacted a trusted tradesman who did the job for $150. Shane is the epitome of a scum. If he ever shows up to your home, do not let him in. He is no friend to anyone's family, he is a crook and will take advantage of anyone he possibly can.

Samantha N.

If I could give J. Blanton zero stars, or negative stars, I would. 100% stay away.

Back in february our hot water heater went out and it was 14 years old. The previous owners of our home had the system set up to where the HWH supplied both potable hot water and ambient heat hot water, so it ran the water to the baseboard heaters, the radiators, and the radiant floors in the house. We had only lived in the house for five months when this happened.

My husband was also out on military training, so it was just my young daughter and I in a very cold house trying to navigate how to handle this. We aren't from Chicago-we're from the south and only have experience with forced air heat. We called J. Blanton hoping they could fix the water heater. The sales person made it seem like it would be very hard to get the part to fix it and unlikely to work and convinced me we probably just needed to get a new one. But then he said that we actually needed to get TWO tankless water heaters-one for potable and one for radiant heat as using one wouldn't be code. He said this would cost around 14-15k. I asked about the potential of something that COULD do both and he said that would be a combiboiler and claimed it would cost me 27k to put one in, so we signed off on the 14-15k. I was in contact with my husband the whole time but again, he was away on military orders so I was trying to handle it, get our heat back on quickly. The sales person also said that we would have to have HVAC come and finish the job for us and it would be simple-they just had to purge the lines and then we'd be good to go. He said this was a perfectly normal way of doing things

So they come and install two Navien tankless. Then I get an HVAC company out and they say that not only can they not finish the job, but that a tankless water heater cannot be used for ambient heat and we need to have a boiler installed instead. I called J. Blanton back and told them this and to their very small credit, they said they would fix it. They came back that day and installed.....a combiboiler. The thing they told me would cost 27k. Now I have a really hard time believing they just gave me 12k of equipment for free, but at the time I didn't realize they had even installed a combi boiler or I would have raised hell over this issue then.

So we called the HVAC company back out and they said that they wouldn't finish another contractors job and they don't know anyone who would, that this is NOT the normal way to do things. I called a friend slightly panicked and they said they knew someone who would finish it for us. So we had another HVAC company come out who said normally they wouldn't do this sort of thing but because they're friends of friends they'd do it, and they hated that we had been without heat AT THIS POINT FOR FIVE DAYS. In February. In Chicago. They also were the ones who told me that a) they had installed a combi boiler with the potable side capped off, why didn't they just use the combi boiler for everything b) in no universe would the combiboiler they installed cost 27k but would have likely saved us time and money just to do this combi boiler and c) they didn't even install it correctly, so they had to redo some of the PLUMBING that this PLUMBING COMPANY did. It cost us an additional 2k to get our system up and running but we were so grateful to this HVAC company and will be lifelong customers because they worked for two days to get us up and running.

The owner of the HVAC company actually called J Blanton to give them a piece of their mind, saying that J Blanton makes all contractors look bad and that people like them are the reason why people don't trust contractors. Then they called me and advised me to ask for some form of restitution because we got absolutely screwed over, and while my husband was away with the air force to boot.

We have called and called and called. J Blanton always says they're going to talk to a higher manager and call us back within 2-3 days, but we never get a call, ever. They had the audacity today to try to call and sell me a bathroom remodel-are you kidding me? No way in hell will I EVER trust them again, I will tell everyone I know not to use them, and we're filing a veterans attorney general complaint against them at this point. We have given them every opportunity to try to make this right. We're not even asking for all our money back which is what one retired plumber advised us to do-just a portion to make up for the fact that they totally lied to us, ripped us off, and forced us to spend thousands more with another company to finish their job.

C D.

Scare tactics to upsell you on unnecessary work. Needed a sewer line jetted due to a root blockage, told me I needed to replace whole line ($12,000). Per two other services, line needed jetting and some root killer. Scope from 2nd opinion showed us sewer line intact. Line was jetted and cleared of roots by someone else who did NOT try to scare us with unnecessary sewer line replacement.

Donna S.

WAY OVERPRICED! WILL NOT GIVE ESTIMATE FOR ANODE ROD REPLACEMENT UNTIL A TECH COMES TO HOUSE. The arrival window is 8 hours so you literally waste an entire day waiting. He finally arrived around 4pm. I was working , my husband was home. Tech told my husband the replacement would be 1399. Then suddenly changed the price to 997! OUTRAGEOUS! The rod is about 50-100 dollars ! Tech was there 25 minutes as verified on my ring camera. Now that I have a complaint and they already charged my credit card, no one of any authority is around to speak to! GO FIGURE! stay away from this company. learned a lesson the hard way and I don't want anyone else to be subject to this pricing.

Desiree P.

Had them come do a repair that turned into a remodel and they took my money and did half the work,now I have to somehow find/borrow some more money to get a lawyer to sue them.

Joseph Y.

My mom's tankless water heater decided to stop giving hot water, so I called the clowns at J Blanton. They had the nerve to charge a $50 fee just to send some tech over the same day. This genius strolls in, glances at the water heater for a pathetic 60 seconds, and declares it needs a flush--oh, and that'll be over a grand, please. Smelled like a scam from a mile away, so I told them no thanks. The next day, I hit up the MFG, Navien, who told me to call their legit contractors. Enter Star Bright Corp--they swooped in, figured it out in 10 minutes as it was just a $10 check valve acting up and fixed it in half an hour, and charged me a fair $200. Meanwhile, J Blanton wanted to rob me blind for a thousand bucks to ""fix"" something that didn't even need fixing. Bunch of fraudulent losers--steer clear of those crooks.

Bryan B.

I requested an emergency service call to replace a $156 control valve on a hot water heater that needed to be fixed the same day. They assured me the tech had the part (I gave them the model and part #) and that it would be fixed that same day. Tech shows up, no parts ""they don't stock any parts"" and there's no way he could get it fixed that night. Tech agreed with my diagnosis and proceeded to spend 15 minutes trying to sell me a new H20 heater for $3,500-$4,500. He left unsuccessful in the sales call. I went to Menards, bought and installed a replacement H20 heater for $680 and had hot water an hour later. But I still got a bill for $259! I will never recommend or do business with this disgrace for a company again.

John J.

I requested J Blanton Plumbing to come assess and fix a stain on a ceiling in our home. They provided a verbal quote of $330, which we agreed to. After cutting a whole in the ceiling, they came back and stated the cost for the diagnostic would be $1,500 stating they had to cut 1/4 of the ceiling out. I had to pay before they would proceed so I had to charge on my cc. I told them it was a building issue so the building association would pay and I would prefer to give them a check from the building. They wouldn't start the work until I paid so I paid on my cc and they said if I got a check they could reverse the credit card charge.
***they never made the initial cut into the drywall an larger, they did cut two additional small holes for diagnostic.

We were in a bind and the ceiling was opened so we agreed as they confirmed we could apply the diagnosic to the cost of repairs. They assessed and provided a verbal quote of services for $4,200. I confirmed they would apply the $1,500 to the cost - they said it was too big of a job to do that?

So they verbally quoted me $5,700 for total job. I had no written documents at this time so they sent me an estimate via email. the estimate referenced cutting the ceiling and the plumbing work for $5,700. I agreed.

I was able to get a check from the Association and for the $5,700 and they stated they would credit my card - it would take 7 days for it to reverse.

Long story short, they completed the work, and never sent me an invoice until I had to call several times. When I recieved invoice it was $1,500 more then the estimate I had signed at the time of service. The invoice number on the one sent several days later and on the estimate recieved on the day of service have the same invoice number. How does an invoice get bigger?

They are now refusing to refund my credit card.

Get everything in writing and do not pay in advance with this group. They have been the worst to deal with with no one calling back. The one saving grace was the actual plumber who fixed the pipe did a good job.

It's very unethical and a double version of switch and bait. There were two of us who were present for all the conversations.

There are too many places that offer these services to deal with unethical business practices like this. Don't bother with them. It's an expensive headache. Do not use this firm!

Trent J.

I paid $700 to reattach the handle on my shower. Yeah that seemed crazy to me too but what do I know my family needed the shower. The handle fell off again. These guys come back out and want even more money for additional parts. $700 already. To reattach a shower handle. This time I wise up and I say no and I want my money back. The manager says ok I'll refund you. The refund never comes and they play dumb. I paid them $700 for nothing. Absolute insanity. It's stealing. Crooked. Dishonest. I wouldn't use these guys to fix a porta potty.